The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for solids separation. Various industrial processes involve a liquid waste stream that includes solids. It is often desirable to separate the solids from the waste stream in order to reduce disposal costs or to recover the solids for other uses. Various filtration and other separation mechanisms are known and have been used for this purpose. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,636 xe2x80x9cFieldsxe2x80x9d shows a type of screw extractor. Also, SWECO makes a vibrating. screen which concentrates the; solids in a liquid stream.
The present invention greatly improves over these prior art mechanisms, achieving a through-put that is two to four times as great as what has been achieved in the prior art at essentially the same cost.
The present invention achieves this tremendously-improved result by modifying and connecting together previously-known components in a new way. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a vibratory screen separator is connected to an extractor screw by means of a flexible tube. This arrangement creates a head in the vibratory screen separator, which greatly improves the throughput in the vibratory screen separator.